Indiana Feb. 13th, 7:30 PM

The bench man, the bench. Listening to Amir's post game was kinda funny. Amir mentioned that the bench knows their roles better now, how they are to either maintain the energy or bring it when the vets can't. We are winning games that we used to lose because of this bench. Cant help but feel that the theme can continue all the way to the NBA finals. If the bench helps us win games we should win - but used to lose; can't they help us win series in the playoffs under that same rule??

Watching some of the things Amir does on defense is just absolutely amazing. Man the next 3 years in Piston land look great. While Wade, Lebron and Howard are the best and most dominate players in the East, their GM's seem clueless as to how to put a championship team together. Thanks Joe.......

Johnson, who played 31 minutes, finished with eight points, seven blocks and nine rebounds. No starter played more than 29, and Hamilton and Antonio McDyess stayed under 20.

"He had seven blocks, and he probably had three they didn't count that he got a piece of," Saunders said of Johnson. "We have to talk to the stat people on that. ... And I don't think a week and a half ago, if I said Amir would lead us in minutes played, anyone would say that's going to happen."

The bench man, the bench. Listening to Amir's post game was kinda funny. Amir mentioned that the bench knows their roles better now, how they are to either maintain the energy or bring it when the vets can't. We are winning games that we used to lose because of this bench. Cant help but feel that the theme can continue all the way to the NBA finals. If the bench helps us win games we should win - but used to lose; can't they help us win series in the playoffs under that same rule??

Watching some of the things Amir does on defense is just absolutely amazing. Man the next 3 years in Piston land look great. While Wade, Lebron and Howard are the best and most dominate players in the East, their GM's seem clueless as to how to put a championship team together. Thanks Joe.......

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A little chest puffing heh?

I want to see how we do the end of this month before I get too excited and hopefully the team doesn't get over confident.

Feb 24th at Phoenix
Feb 25th at Denver
Feb 27th at Utah

At this time it seems to me that once Bynum returns and Radmonovic is moved to the bench the Lakers bench is as good as ours.

Right now Farmar and Vujacic (a combined 17 ppg and 40% on 3s) are just as good, if not better than Stuckey and Afflalo. Of course our guys are rookies so they could become better than the Lakers duo or have more experience at this point.

Ariza, Turiaf, Radmonovic and Walton are better as a unit than Maxiell, Johnson and Hayes.

Ariza and/or Walton match up very favorably with Hayes

While Maxey is a better rebounder than Radmonovic, Vladie is shooting 42% on 3s.

At this point AJ has a slight edge over Turiaf, who I would love to see us get for Maxey, but the Lakers would never do that deal. However I expect AJ to get a whole heck of a lot better more so than Turiaf.

Turiaf is probably their best low post defender and he can also defend away from the basket.

They play 11.

The Lakers have 4 guys shoot 38% + on threes, and that doesn't include Kobe. Combine that with the low post presence of Gasol and Bynum along with the everywhere presence of L.O. and oh yea throw in a guy named Kobe and the Lakers may be the best team, though not by much, in the league, when healthy.

I am just not convinced yet that the Lakers defense is good enough to win the Title

Right now assuming everyone is healthy on all contending teams I rank them.

1. Mean Greenies
2. Lakers
3. Pistons
4. Cavs
5. Jazz
6. Spurs

Though I would say that of the group there no team is significantly better than the other 5.

the beauty of the bench is that there's a bunch of game-changers. max can change a game. amir can change a game. stuckey can change a game. hayes can blow open a lead. lindsey can turn a game around defensively.

when you have that many, there's a good chance 1 or 2 of them are going to be superb every night, which is why we've been seeing such ridiculously good games over the past 10.

At this time it seems to me that once Bynum returns and Radmonovic is moved to the bench the Lakers bench is as good as ours.

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IMO... only because Phil is known for giving his bench PT, and the majority of those players you have mentioned have logged much more time in together and under Phil's system than our guys- 2 rookies, a 1st year FA, and a may as well be a rookie.

As far as talent, and potential returns 3 years from now goes... our bench blows the Laker bench out of the water. If Samb can become a contributor, forget about it.

I want to see how we do the end of this month before I get too excited and hopefully the team doesn't get over confident.

Feb 24th at Phoenix
Feb 25th at Denver
Feb 27th at Utah

At this time it seems to me that once Bynum returns and Radmonovic is moved to the bench the Lakers bench is as good as ours.

Right now Farmar and Vujacic (a combined 17 ppg and 40% on 3s) are just as good, if not better than Stuckey and Afflalo. Of course our guys are rookies so they could become better than the Lakers duo or have more experience at this point.

Ariza, Turiaf, Radmonovic and Walton are better as a unit than Maxiell, Johnson and Hayes.

Ariza and/or Walton match up very favorably with Hayes

While Maxey is a better rebounder than Radmonovic, Vladie is shooting 42% on 3s.

At this point AJ has a slight edge over Turiaf, who I would love to see us get for Maxey, but the Lakers would never do that deal. However I expect AJ to get a whole heck of a lot better more so than Turiaf.

Turiaf is probably their best low post defender and he can also defend away from the basket.

They play 11.

The Lakers have 4 guys shoot 38% + on threes, and that doesn't include Kobe. Combine that with the low post presence of Gasol and Bynum along with the everywhere presence of L.O. and oh yea throw in a guy named Kobe and the Lakers may be the best team, though not by much, in the league, when healthy.

I am just not convinced yet that the Lakers defense is good enough to win the Title

Right now assuming everyone is healthy on all contending teams I rank them.

1. Mean Greenies
2. Lakers
3. Pistons
4. Cavs
5. Jazz
6. Spurs

Though I would say that of the group there no team is significantly better than the other 5.

Everyone else.

cheers

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I watch a lot of Laker games these days, ever since Ariza joined the team. (Although Ariza has been injured lately). My assessment of the Laker bench is a whole lot less kind than yours.

I like Ariza a lot. Lots of hustle. Lots of rebounds. Lots of defense. But I will take Amir any day. On offense, Ariza can knock down an open shot upon occasion, but he is too streaky to help his team much as an outside shooter at this point. Other than that, Ariza is a far weaker offensive player vs. Amir. On defense, while Ariza is pure hustle, he is simply small as compared to Amir. Of course, Ariza is being used as a small forward, while Amir is playing power forward for us. But Amir could play the small forward positon just fine, and outclass Ariza as a defender completely. (While Ariza is not going to play power forward for you.) In all, Amir is just the bigger, stronger, faster, quicker, far more talented version of Ariza.

Vujacic is not someone who the Pistons would have on the team. Not enough defense. On offense, he is a streaky shooter. Walton impresses me not in the remotest, in any way, not with any aspect of his game. Farmar is getting his game together this year, enough to be an acceptable backup, and nothing more. Radmanovic has been in a slump forever. He is showing signs of coming out of that slump of late, but even if he makes some of those outside shots, that is the extent of his game; very one dimensional.

I will hold judgement on Turiaf for now, as he is coming off that heart surgery. But I will say so far, that the only thing he has done to amaze me in anyway is to come back from that heart surgery.

In sum, when the Lakers starters sit, what comes in to replace them ain't pretty. Farmar and Ariza are the best of the lot, with Ariza being the only one I would pay to see play basketball.

Our four younsters off the bench, Stuckey, Afflalo, Maxy, and Amir, are each well ahead of Ariza on defense, who is by far the best of the Lakers bench on D. On offense, all four of our guys beat all theirs. In all, there really is no comparison, we have the better bench, far and away.

Yes, Hayes is part of the bench. If I had to rank him with the rest of the players mentioned above, I would rank him toward the bottom. His shot is not consistant enough, and his defense is not sound enough. Specifically, I would rank him behind Ariza, Farmar, and Turiaf, tied with Walton, and ahead of Radmanovic and Vujacic.

IMO... only because Phil is known for giving his bench PT, and the majority of those players you have mentioned have logged much more time in together and under Phil's system than our guys- 2 rookies, a 1st year FA, and a may as well be a rookie.

As far as talent, and potential returns 3 years from now goes... our bench blows the Laker bench out of the water. If Samb can become a contributor, forget about it.

I watch a lot of Laker games these days, ever since Ariza joined the team. (Although Ariza has been injured lately). My assessment of the Laker bench is a whole lot less kind than yours.

I like Ariza a lot. Lots of hustle. Lots of rebounds. Lots of defense. But I will take Amir any day. On offense, Ariza can knock down an open shot upon occasion, but he is too streaky to help his team much as an outside shooter at this point. Other than that, Ariza is a far weaker offensive player vs. Amir. On defense, while Ariza is pure hustle, he is simply small as compared to Amir. Of course, Ariza is being used as a small forward, while Amir is playing power forward for us. But Amir could play the small forward positon just fine, and outclass Ariza as a defender completely. (While Ariza is not going to play power forward for you.) In all, Amir is just the bigger, stronger, faster, quicker, far more talented version of Ariza.

Vujacic is not someone who the Pistons would have on the team. Not enough defense. On offense, he is a streaky shooter. Walton impresses me not in the remotest, in any way, not with any aspect of his game. Farmar is getting his game together this year, enough to be an acceptable backup, and nothing more. Radmanovic has been in a slump forever. He is showing signs of coming out of that slump of late, but even if he makes some of those outside shots, that is the extent of his game; very one dimensional.

I will hold judgement on Turiaf for now, as he is coming off that heart surgery. But I will say so far, that the only thing he has done to amaze me in anyway is to come back from that heart surgery.

In sum, when the Lakers starters sit, what comes in to replace them ain't pretty. Farmar and Ariza are the best of the lot, with Ariza being the only one I would pay to see play basketball.

Our four younsters off the bench, Stuckey, Afflalo, Maxy, and Amir, are each well ahead of Ariza on defense, who is by far the best of the Lakers bench on D. On offense, all four of our guys beat all theirs. In all, there really is no comparison, we have the better bench, far and away.

Yes, Hayes is part of the bench. If I had to rank him with the rest of the players mentioned above, I would rank him toward the bottom. His shot is not consistant enough, and his defense is not sound enough. Specifically, I would rank him behind Ariza, Farmar, and Turiaf, tied with Walton, and ahead of Radmanovic and Vujacic.

Isn't that essentially what one would have to do in order to put two rookies, 1 rookie for all intents and purposes and one second year player for all intents and purposes...paired up with a guy that is rebounding from injury riddled seasons and learning a new system against guys that have played together for multiple seasons and also played within the same system for multiple seasons?

Vujacic - 4th season all with LA
Walton- 5th year all with LA
Turiaf - 3rd year all with LA
Farmar - 2nd year in league - experience on par with Maxiell
Radmanovic- 7 year vet, 2nd with LA
Ariza- 4 year vet 1st year with LA - experience on par with Hayes

As you can see, our most experienced players in the bench rotation - Hayes and Maxiell - are only equal in experience with team and system to Farmar and Ariza, two guys that happen to be the low men on the totem pole in the same context on the Lakers bench.

In order for our bench to log the same amount of PT we would have to fast forward to three years from now and only then would your comparison to todays Lakers bench be a valid one, since in the long run repetition of tasks and structure over a period of years goes a long way toward influencing a squads on court performance regardless of a players individual talents and skills.

Ariza has not been on the team for the last month. He has been on the injured list.

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I mentioned that already. I only saw Ariza play a few games with the Lakers before he got injured, but I kept watching the Lakers anyway. What I know of Ariza is mostly from following him when he played for Orlando. I also watched several Laker games last year trying to figure out why Mo Evans was getting playing time there. As far as I could tell, Evans was doing pretty bad, and LA was trying to find someone who could take his minutes. But there was just no talent on the LA bench so Evans had to play. Since then, Farmar has improved a lot.

I mentioned that already. I only saw Ariza play a few games with the Lakers before he got injured, but I kept watching the Lakers anyway. What I know of Ariza is mostly from following him when he played for Orlando. I also watched several Laker games last year trying to figure out why Mo Evans was getting playing time there. As far as I could tell, Evans was doing pretty bad, and LA was trying to find someone who could take his minutes. But there was just no talent on the LA bench so Evans had to play. Since then, Farmar has improved a lot.